If the crying didn’t cease, it would radiate across whole housing complex, creating a morose blanket that draped itself over every sidewalk, alleyway, tree and shrub. The only way to escape it was to close one’s windows and wait for silence.

Mrs Spratch knew that something must be done to purge the gloom from her baby.

This drawing goes back to when Lucy Spratch was still a baby as an attempt to fill in the gaps between then and Lucy as a young girl playing with the people jars.

Nov 25, 2008

Some creepy masks for your delectation. Masks are my favourite thing to illustrate right now, and I have decided to keep venturing forward in this vein. You can see all of the mask photos in the Ink & Mess set on my Flickr or on my website.

The challenge topic this week is 'Magic'. Enjoy yourselves with this one, I'm eager to see what you come up with.

Be sure to label your illustrations with the appropriate labels. Label your entries with your name and the challenge label, in this case SFG: Magic.

The next challenge begins Monday, December 8th, 2008.

The SFG Challenge was created to offer every member an opportunity to stretch their creative muscles, venture outside of their artistic boundaries and post their interpretations each week on a specific theme. This is a completely voluntary challenge!

If you're interested in taking advantage of SFG's site traffic and advertising opportunities here and on Design Inspiration, e-mail me.

Nov 21, 2008

SFG crew,First off, THANKS! Jeff told me he passed along my original message about my son, Levi having cardiac arrest back on the 6th. My wife and I have been flooded with emotions spiking high and dropping low and everywhere in between. But I am going to TRY to make sense now.

It is a miracle that he is here with us tonight, sitting back watching cartoons. It is such a long story, well two weeks actually, lol. But I really have been so thankful for all you SFRers that have been wishing us well, praying for us and even helping out financially. I am blown away and inspired by you all. And to be honest, with you all and others coming along side of us, you have helped restore my hope in people in general. I have become jaded over the years and living in my own little world not letting people in or even me getting involved in other peoples life. So, when all this went down, you all stepped up and prayed and sent as much love as possible. And I gotta Tell ya, that really pushed on through this. So again, thank you. Not only for your prayers and support. But for helping me see what is important. LIFE.And people in life. I don't think you know how much I covet your thoughts, prayers and financial help.

We are on the road to recovery now. It is great to be home. Back to "normal" life. But changed. Changed by the miracle. And I may step on a few toes, but I do believe it is a God thing. And not to sound to generic with "God" , but I believe it to be a Jesus thing.

Now I look at each day, really new. And my goal now is to try to build memories. Lasting memories that no matter who may pass away in my family, the others are left with good memories to help carry on. we are also, as a family going to be involved in a new "cause". Getting CPR and AED awareness out there. In some states, it is LAW that AEDs are in schools. NOT in the state of Washington. We want to change that! And we are very thankful for the families who worked hard to provide them for the schools in our area. Especially for the one that saved our sons life! There are several families that would like to talk to us as well as foundations. Levi is a "poster child" for this cause. And we are very thankful! We want to talk to people and keep the torch going for this.

Anyway, I am rambling now. But THANK you all for your help! It is greatly appreciated! Much love. The pic is of me (tattooed fat guy on the left, Mom and the guys who did CPR on Levi, saving him!Your fellow illustrator,Drew

Friday, November 21st marks my 9th full year for drawing Scooby-Doo professionally! I've drawn about 20 or so more licenses in-between all the Scooby gigs but he has been my mainstay for all these years. For more go to scottneelyart.blogspot.com!

Although Lucy Spratch wasn't the happiest or most carefree child, her worries were few. Her mother often let Lucy do as she pleased and did not interfere by nagging if she had brushed her teeth or that she shouldn't engage in activities such as walking under ladders, stepping on cracks or drifting about the neighbourhood on her own.

This is another Spratch drawing, once again you can see the other drawings in this series here

Nov 20, 2008

My good friend and mentor Christian Patchell, just opened an online shop called "MonsterBot 3000." The name says it all, filled with comics, plush goodies, and much much more! So what are you waiting for? Go check it out!

I used to draw in all different size drawing books. Then I started blogging and realized some formats just don't work well on blogs. Take for example the wide, double page spread, drawing books. If you do a drawing in one of these suckers and post it, the size will appear very tiny. I've posted a few examples above. There is too much width and no height. The details become so small you can hardly see anything. Now I only draw in books that are squarish or rectangular with the height being the longest measurement. It makes a big difference. Some people on Urban Sketchers post these tiny tiny drawings. They haven't learned that in the blogging world, size matters.